


The Father Pt. 3

by tsuki_llama



Series: The Office [17]
Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24565285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuki_llama/pseuds/tsuki_llama
Summary: After a chance meeting in the elevator, Kirihara invites Li out for a Talk. Takes place following The Words.
Relationships: Hei/Kirihara Misaki
Series: The Office [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/483635
Comments: 15
Kudos: 172





	The Father Pt. 3

“Hold the elevator,” Kirihara Naoyasu called out, striding briskly down the corridor. He hadn’t run for an elevator in fifteen years; he wasn’t about to start now.

Only one person remained in the car, their shoulder just visible beyond the closing doors; a hand reached out and caught the door before it could shut.

Kirihara stepped in and turned to face the front, adjusting the overcoat tucked over his arm. The button for the lobby had already been pressed, he saw.

“Thank you.”

“Um, sure. You’re welcome.”

Kirihara looked up sharply at the sound of that falsely polite voice to see his fear confirmed: he was sharing the elevator with BK-201.

He almost hit the button for the next floor - any floor - just to get out and away from the contractor as quickly as possible. He hadn’t asked for the lobby, after all; he wouldn’t lose face.

Well, _he_ would know that he’d acted cowardly and let the contractor win. In any case, it would be foolish for the man to try anything in the middle of headquarters; and contractors were anything but foolish. Stiffening his back, he remained in the center of the car.

“Um, I hope you’re…doing well, sir?”

Kirihara nearly cringed. Was he really going to be forced to make small talk with a contractor? Had the creature no sense of decorum?

“Fine, thank you,” he said curtly. Then he eyed BK-201. Or rather, he supposed, _Officer_ Li Hei.

It still made him a bit sick, the idea of a contractor in his police force. The man couldn’t even dress appropriately; Misaki was entirely too lax, allowing her team to wear such casual clothing. In his day, if an officer wasn’t in uniform blues, he wore the nicest suit he could afford. It was a matter of respect for the position. But what would a contractor ever understand about respect.

“Did Misaki dismiss her team early?” he asked. “It’s barely six.”

He might have imagined it, but he thought Li looked a bit uncomfortable at the implicit accusation.

Good.

“No,” Li said. “But she has a section meeting, and everyone else is just catching up on reports. I thought I’d use the time to work on a project I’m doing with Astronomics.”

Astronomics? All that classified data, that top secret equipment… “What project?” he snapped.

Li shrugged and stared straight ahead at the elevator panel. “Just something Chief Ishizaki wanted to try.”

_Why doesn’t he want to say what it is?_ Kirihara wondered. _Probably lying, and can’t think of convincing enough details._

The elevator doors pinged open into the utilitarian lobby of the Public Security Bureau headquarters. Li waited politely for Kirihara to exit, then followed him out. It made his skin crawl, a contractor behind him like that. But he kept his gaze forward and refused to let it show.

“Are you not taking a car from the motor pool?” The motor pool was in the building’s parking garage, accessed from the basement.

“Uh, no. I’m not going to the observatory.”

He’d been right then. The man was up to something that he didn’t want anyone to find out about.

“Well,” Kirihara said on impulse, “I’m just stepping out for a bite to eat. Why don’t you walk with me a ways; we can talk.”

“Talk?”

Li covered it well, but Kirihara could tell that he was alarmed by the idea. Perfect.

Before he could say anything, however, a voice rang out across the lobby. “Kirihara! Where are you off to, so early in the evening?”

Kirihara turned to see one of his directors in Criminal Investigations striding in from the street.

“Oh, just stepping out for a quick bite, Tanimoto. Have you met Officer Li, Section Four’s newest recruit?” he added before the contractor could take the opportunity to slip away.

To his surprise, however, Tanimoto clapped the man on the shoulder. “Of course! Li, good to see you again! Li was a huge help in the Umeta case.”

Kirihara raised an eyebrow. “I hadn’t realized Section Four was involved in that case.”

“Not officially,” Li said, sounding almost apologetic. “Lieutenant Hoshi called the office to ask a question about contractors, and we started talking…anyway, he showed me the Umeta files, and I spotted some connections to two former Syndicate contractors from our records. That’s all.”

Kirihara’s blood ran cold at the not-so-subtle reminder of the sword that was hanging over his head. If Misaki ever found out…he didn’t think he could bear the shame of it. He eyed Li, but the contractor’s expression remained blandly friendly.

Tanimoto laughed. “Yes, that’s all - but it was the break we needed. I’m still writing up the report, Superintendent, you’ll see.” He glanced between the other two men. “So, I’m guessing the rumor is true?”

“What rumor?” Kirihara asked, a shade too sharply.

“Sorry, I just thought, seeing the two of you getting a meal together…I’ve heard from a few people now that Director Kirihara and Li here are an item?”

Li smiled, looking deceptively human. “Um, yeah, that’s true. We are.”

“Ah, too bad. I wish you both all the happiness, of course! But I admit I had been thinking of introducing you to my Sachi. Leave it to the Superintendent to win the son-in-law lottery.”

“They’re hardly engaged, Tanimoto.”

That would be the day. Kirihara had been incredibly proud to hear that Misaki had flipped BK-201 - the Syndicate’s most deadly and loyal contractor - but hiring him? And _dating_ him? As if he were a person and not a lying murderer? He still had trouble believing it.

He was also having trouble deciding how to handle it. He couldn’t talk to Misaki directly, of course; his best bet was probably to just wait it out. Misaki would come to her senses soon enough, once she realized how impossible it was for a contractor to commit to anything - especially a relationship, which required _actual_ emotion.

He was surprised things had gone on this long, actually; his daughter was an idealist, yes, but she always tempered that idealism with the pragmatism she’d learned from him. Where was the pragmatism in _this_?

She should have at least listened to his warning about telling others; when the contractor eventually slipped up and revealed his true colors, the backlash on her wouldn’t be pretty. It was the only thing keeping him from going straight to the press. It had the potential to ruin her career forever; and worse, the potential to break her heart.

“That’s the third person who’s wanted to introduce me to their daughter this month,” Li said, half to himself, as they exited the building.

Kirihara pulled on his overcoat; this late in November it wasn’t quite freezing, but it was close, and the sun had long since set. Next to him, Li buried his hands in his windbreaker.

“I don’t know what’s worse, you chasing after some poor naive girl, or staying with Misaki.”

“I wouldn’t _chase after_ anyone who didn’t know who I am. Anyway, staying with Misaki is all I want.”

“Well, we’ll see how long that lasts; I don’t think she’ll appreciate hearing that you’re shopping around for other women.”

“Nah, she’ll just laugh when I tell her. She did the last two times.”

Kirihara doubted that. Before he could say so, however, Li abruptly turned right down a side street. Unwilling to let the contractor off the hook that easy, Kirihara followed.

“I’ll thank you to stay out of my division’s business, at least,” he said, tugging his coat collars up against the breeze whistling between the buildings. “Tanimoto’s team was doing just fine on the Umeta case.”

That wasn’t one hundred percent true - they hadn’t made any progress in the past two weeks - but they would have gotten there eventually. On their own.

A quizzical expression crossed Li’s face. “I mean, Hoshi called _me_ \- well, us. It wasn’t about that case, but I didn’t think sharing information would be a problem. In the Syndicate, yeah, _no one_ talked to each other. But I guessed that was just because they didn’t want anyone to find out what they were doing. The police are all on the same team though, right?”

Kirihara blinked. Was the contractor genuinely _asking_? He seemed to be waiting for answer.

“Well,” Kirihara said at last. “Yes. I suppose. That’s really up to your Chief.”

“Right. I’ll ask Misaki,” Li said, sounding relieved as he took a left down yet another street.

“Joint operations, and any sort of interdepartmental communication, have to be handled carefully. There are always politics involved, even if you don’t see it - and where exactly are you taking us?” he added irritably as the contractor turned yet again.

Li shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You’re just wandering randomly? What a waste of -”

“I’m following Dolores.”

“Dolores?” While the sidewalks were crowded with early evening foot traffic, Kirihara hadn’t noticed any particular woman that had made all the same turns they had.

Li, however, pointed upwards.

Kirihara followed his finger, squinting at the upper stories of the commercial buildings lining the street. “What? There’s no-”

“Dolores is one of Astronomics’ mediums. I’m following her specter.”

Kirihara couldn’t repress the shiver that ran down his spine. Specters; it was another reminder of how unnatural contractors were.

“And what, exactly, is the point of that?” And was it even possible to tell specters apart from each other? He’d certainly never heard of such a thing.

Li hesitated. “Well, we’re still testing some ideas. Ishizaki and me, I mean. I’ve been teaching Dolores some tactical signals -”

“Teaching? A _medium?_ ”

“Why not? You can see it’s working with - uh, well, I guess you can’t see. But a few days ago I asked Dolores to look for something, and she showed up in the office today. So I think she found it. She’s moving her specter slowly so I can follow, anyway.”

Nothing in BK-201’s dossier had indicated an interest in anything like doll experimentation. True, Kirihara had never seen the entirety of his files - the Heaven’s War period was highly classified even within the Syndicate - but still. Assassination, burglary, the odd unsanctioned killing or two, yes. But training _dolls_? What on earth was the contractor up to?

It didn’t surprise him that Ishizaki was involved in whatever this was; Misaki’s friend had always been a bit odd. Although, Kirihara reflected, did that mean that Misaki had told Ishizaki that her new subordinate was a contractor? It stung a little, to think that his daughter had confided something so significant to someone other than her own father.

Well. It wasn’t as if he’d been entirely honest with _her._

“And you asked this doll to look for what?” he said, carefully slotting aside that unwelcome feeling of guilt.

Again, Li hesitated. Then he said, “You know the raid on the Kishita family last week?”

Kirihara’s chest constricted. “The one in which a contractor killed one of my men?” he asked curtly. “Yes, I know it. I also know that _you_ weren’t with the rest of Section Four when it happened.”

“ _I_ was at the safe house, protecting _your_ witnesses and waiting for the backup that your Chief never sent,” Li shot back.

The emotion in his voice surprised Kirihara so much that he nearly missed his step. It wasn’t the intensity of it - though there was certainly an underlying current of anger that he had never heard from the man before - but rather the fact that it was there at all.

He was faking it. He had to be.

“I saw you and Misaki at the funeral.” He’d wanted to go speak with his daughter, see how she was coping, but the contractor hadn’t left her side the entire event, and Kirihara didn’t think he could talk to her without being rude to _him_. Being rude at a fellow officer’s funeral was not something he could bring himself to do. “Koga’s widow singled you out and said something to you, specifically. What was it?”

Li stared down the street, his expression unreadable. “She thanked me for killing the contractor who killed her husband.”

They turned another corner, the silence between them heavy despite the noise of the city.

“And what does this have to do with following a specter?” Kirihara said at last, in as indifferent a tone as he could manage.

“There were two contractors working for the Kishita family,” Li said. “I killed them both. There was a doll working with them too, but CI didn’t find any dolls in their raid.”

Kirihara ignored the casual tone in the contractor’s voice. It was only to be expected. “So?”

“So, there must be a secondary location where the doll is being kept. There might be a remnant of the Kishitas hiding out there, which CI will probably want to know.”

“Didn’t I just tell you to stay out of my division’s business?”

“Or,” Li continued blithely, “The doll was just…left on its own. Which is Section Four’s business.”

That much was true, Kirihara had to admit. “So you think… _Dolores_ …has found this location?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“And which is it - are there any yakuza there?”

“I, uh, don’t know. Dolores can sort of answer yes or no questions? But I haven’t been able to get a clear answer on that.”

Kirihara halted in his tracks. “Wait. You’re following - _we’re_ following - this specter to the location where a yakuza outfit that’s wanted by the police has hidden a doll, and you don’t know if any unsubs will be present?”

“Um, yes? I’m just going to do some recon; hopefully after a couple hours I’ll know if anyone is there and who they are.”

“Misaki sanctioned this? A recon mission with no backup?”

He saw the answer to his question in Li’s expression.

“Why wouldn’t you tell your own Chief what you’re doing?” he pressed, eyes narrowed. “Dolls are a valuable commodity - do you want this doll for yourself?”

“What?” Li blinked. “No! I just…I’m not sure if there’s even going to be anything there. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time on a false alarm, especially if it turns out the doll was just left alone.” He sighed, glancing up at the telephone wires running above the sidewalk. “I’m still getting used to counting on other people for help.

“Well, you said you wanted something to eat,” the contractor continued before Kirihara could respond. “Will this place work?”

They had stopped outside a small ramen restaurant. Kirihara glanced at the sign above the door - it seemed as good a place as any - then back at Li. And abruptly narrowed his eyes. “What did you do with your hand just now?”

Li had made a small circling gesture with his wrist, as if working out some stiffness in the joint; but somehow Kirihara had trouble believing such a casual movement was anything but intentional.

Surprise flitted across Li’s face. “You caught that? I must be out of practice,” he muttered. Then in a low voice he continued, “I was signaling Dolores to circle the block, like she’s on a normal surveillance pattern. If there _are_ any contractors here, I don’t want to tip them off.”

Kirihara tried to ignore the chill that ran down his spine at the sudden change in tone. It wasn’t as if he’d _forgotten_ that the man next to him was BK-201; but it was easy to get lulled into a sense of complacency while the contractor was putting on his act.

“This is the place then?”

Li’s expression turned almost apologetic, completely incongruous with the tone in which he’d just been speaking. “Yeah, looks like it. You don’t need to get involved in this; I’m sure they do takeout. I’ll just find a place inside to sit and watch.”

There was a pressure behind Kirihara’s eyes; a sudden headache coming on. He owed this contractor nothing - and yet, the man was a fellow officer, if only technically. And a member of Misaki’s team.

He shook his head, and pushed the door open. “I’m not finished speaking to you; I’ll stay until I am.”

The restaurant was small: only a handful of tables with a few seats at the bar, about half of which were occupied. Li led them over to a table that was between the kitchen door and the entrance, choosing for himself the seat against the wall. That left Kirihara with _his_ back to the bar, a terrible position for a stakeout.

_This isn’t_ my _stakeout,_ he reminded himself. He was just here to keep an eye on the contractor; that was all. Well, and eat. And he could do both perfectly well with his back to the bar. He shrugged off his overcoat and draped it over the back of the chair. Li kept his windbreaker on.

“I thought you didn’t drink,” Kirihara said with a raised eyebrow when Li ordered a beer along with his own tea and ramen bowl. “Or is that just a lie for Misaki’s sake?”

“I don’t drink,” Li said, his expression growing almost imperceptibly darker. “What I do is sit with the bottle in front of me and occasionally pretend to drink, so I don’t look suspicious. If I want people to believe I’m getting drunk, I just order more.”

“Clever.” It wasn’t a compliment.

Li shrugged one shoulder and took a sip - pretended to take a sip - from the amber bottle. “Standard Syndicate training.”

Kirihara didn’t respond to that. His ramen arrived, and he focused on eating - while taking the opportunity to surreptitiously regard the man across from him.

Li certainly gave every appearance of being a normal human, both when they’d been talking to Tanimoto and here now, slouched casually in his seat and seemingly enjoying a drink at the end of a long shift. Kirihara couldn’t blame fellow officers like Tanimoto or Hoshi for being taken in by the facade. Hell, he himself hadn’t suspected a thing until all those small clues had come together over the course of that dinner. Misaki would never have given up on her crusade to hire a contractor, after all.

Misaki…he just couldn’t understand it. She’d worked with him _as_ BK-201; she of all people ought to have been able to see right through the lies. Like that nonsense about him changing sides in order to save people from getting hurt in the Tokyo Explosion. He would have disappeared along with all the other contractors if the Syndicate’s plan had worked. It was pure self-interest; nothing more. Why couldn’t Misaki see that?

His daughter did have a tendency to see the good in people, he knew; policework hadn’t jaded her like it did so many others.

She got that from her mother.

“Can I, uh, can I ask you something, sir?”

“What?” Kirihara replied uncharitably, annoyed at being brought back to the present.

The contractor had that innocent rookie look on his face again. “ _Are_ you planning on going to the press? About me, I mean. It’s just…Misaki’s working so hard to change public perception of contractors. If that information leaked, she would need some kind of warning. To get ahead of it.”

“Bullshit. You’re worried about yourself and we both know it.”

Li shrugged, but didn’t apologize. “I’d rather the public didn’t know about me, yeah. But I knew it was a risk when I applied for the job. I just don’t want Misaki to face more of a struggle because of it.”

Kirihara took a long sip of tea, letting the contractor stew for a few more seconds. “I meant what I said about my daughter getting hurt,” he said at last. “But she’s an adult, who is perfectly capable of making her own choices in life, however misguided. I don’t want to get in the way of her goals for her team.

“ _But_ ,” he added with a cold glare, “when the truth comes out, it won’t hurt just her. It will damage her whole team; the whole agency. I still have no idea how you managed to convince Misaki that hiding what you are was in any way a good idea.”

Li nodded, the corners of his mouth pressed down in an expression that looked contrite of all things. “She didn’t want to hide it. I was just afraid that the rest of the team would refuse to work with me, if they knew. She hired me on the condition that I had to tell them eventually.”

That did sound like something Misaki would agree to, Kirihara had to admit. “Well, I hope she gave you a deadline; it’s been what, four, five months already? Delaying any longer -”

“Oh, I told them already,” Li said, his brow furrowing. “And they’re fine with it? Misaki said they would be, but I still wasn’t expecting that. I should have trusted her more.” A hint of a smile appeared. “She’s usually right about those things.”

Kirihara could hardly believe what he was hearing. The members of Section Four knew there was a contractor right in their midst, and they were _fine_ with it? Did Li think that he would be too afraid to confirm the information? Or…could it actually be true?

If it was, all of Kirihara’s leverage over the man was gone in an instant; there was nothing now stopping him from telling Misaki her father’s shame.

“There’s something else I wanted to ask you, sir.”

Kirihara eyed the contractor, his pulse in his throat. What now?

Taking his silence for permission, Li continued, “Why did you join them?”

There wasn’t a hint of accusation in his tone; he sounded merely curious. Kirihara knew better than to trust whatever emotion a contractor showed the world.

He was tempted to lie; he didn’t owe anyone the truth but his daughter. But doing so would bring him down to BK-201’s level. Calmly he set down his spoon and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Contractors are a threat to public safety. As a police officer, I couldn’t let them run loose around my city, threatening people, people like my own daughter, with those unnatural abilities and not a care for what harm they did. We needed a plan to deal with them; the Syndicate had one.”

Li’s eyes closed slightly, as if he was expecting that response and was weary of it. As if a contractor even had the capacity to take things personally.

Still, Kirihara added - though he didn’t know why, “I didn’t know their plan involved the Saturn Ring and the total elimination of all dolls and contractors.”

Regarding his still-full beer thoughtfully, Li asked, “And if you had known?”

“Honestly…I don’t know.”

Li nodded to himself. “I used to feel the same way about contractors. Even when I thought I was one.”

Kirihara was about to ask what on earth he meant by that when the man’s eyes abruptly narrowed and he turned his head to gaze just over Kirihara’s right shoulder. Or rather, he turned his ear towards the bar.

There was a man standing there now, directly behind him; Kirihara could see in the reflection of the window behind Li. His old undercover instincts kicking in, he tuned his attention to what the man was saying, just audible over the noise of the little restaurant.

“…still in the back room? It hasn’t given you any trouble, I hope.”

The barman grunted. “No trouble; just creepy as hell.”

The other man laughed. “Creepy, yeah - but I’ve got a buyer for it, it’ll fetch us a nice price.”

“That what the boss wants?”

“The boss got himself locked up; we gotta look after ourselves now. I’ll bring the van around back, give me a few minutes.”

“Damn,” Li said in a low voice as the man left the restaurant. “They’re moving it.”

His tone was deadly serious, no trace of the genial rookie officer left. _I knew it was just a mask_ , Kirihara told himself; yet he couldn’t be happy that he’d been proved right.

“Are you sure it’s the doll,” he asked in an equally low voice.

Li nodded once. “His specter has been in that bamboo plant across the room off and on since we arrived.”

Kirihara swore. “So it knows we’re here?”

“I don’t think he has any reason to think we’re a threat, and it doesn’t sound like the barman knows enough to talk to him. Dolores might have said something; I don’t know.”

Li stood, preparing to leave the restaurant.

“What are you doing?” Kirihara demanded, following him out.

The contractor exited onto the street, hands stuffed in his pockets. He took a few steps, then paused by a lamp post. “Can you put a thread on them?” he asked quietly.

At first, the words made absolutely no sense; then Kirihara realized he must be speaking to the Astronomics specter. He shivered despite himself, and pulled his coat on.

“I didn’t think so,” Li said with a shake of his head.

“Get the license plate number of the van,” Kirihara told him. “CI can put out a bulletin on it.”

“Too much of a long shot; once that doll leaves the premises we’ll never find it again.”

He was right, unfortunately. “Well, it’s too risky to engage. Call for backup and -”

“Too slow. I’ll handle it.”

Another shiver ran down Kirihara’s spine. “And if that man turns out to be a contractor?”

BK-201 eyed him coldly. “You know I know how to handle contractors.”

Without another word, he headed down the street towards the dark mouth of an alley which must lead behind the restaurant.

Kirihara watched him go for a long, long minute. If that other man _was_ a contractor, his problem might just solve itself. Then cursing himself for a fool, he followed after.

In the darkness of the alley, Kirihara nearly walked right past the contractor; he would have, if he hadn’t been intentionally peering into every shadow that he passed.

“What are you doing here?” Li was hidden in the darkness beside a utility pole, a large fuse box masking his outline. Kirihara ducked in next to him.

“I admit it’s been a long time since I’ve done any fieldwork, but that’s not the sort of training that ever really leaves you,” he said. Then he sighed. “It would tear Misaki apart to see anyone else on her team get hurt. Even a contractor.”

The contractor was silent for a moment; then he said, “Here,” and held out a pistol.

Kirihara didn’t take it. “What is this?”

“You’re not carrying your service weapon. I mostly just wear mine for show; it’s not like I need it.”

Kirihara bit back the retort that how could Li possibly know he wasn’t wearing his weapon; a trained operative could spot that a mile away, of course. He took the pistol. “Do you have any kind of plan, or are you just going to walk up and kill him?”

“When the van drives up, I’ll get behind it. When we have confirmation that he has the doll, you…do the police thing, and I’ll subdue him from behind.”

“The police thing?”

The contractor shrugged uncomfortably. “Walk out with the gun and tell him to put his hands up.”

Kirihara snorted; before he could reply, the rumble of an engine sounded in the mouth of the alley. A white, unmarked van, exactly like the thousands of other vans in the city, pulled up behind the restaurant a mere ten yards from their hiding place.

The man from the restaurant climbed out of the driver’s seat; Kirihara couldn’t see anyone else, but that didn’t mean he was alone. He was the only one who went into the building through the rear door, however.

As soon as the man disappeared inside, Li detached himself from the shadows and crept across the intervening distance, moving silently from one patch of darkness to the next. Kirihara wondered how many people had had that as the last thing they saw on earth: an innocent shadow suddenly forming itself into the shape of death.

He steadied his nerves with a deep breath. It had been too long since he’d been in the field.

The kitchen door opened again, letting a patch of light spill out. The man exited the building, gripping the arm of a smaller figure. Its features were indistinct from Kirihara’s vantage point, but he could tell by the slow movements, the slackness in its limbs, that it was a doll.

Cocking the pistol, he stepped out into the alley.

And only then did it occur to him that there was nothing - absolutely nothing - keeping the contractor from simply standing by and letting him be killed. One less obstacle in his path; one less person who knew the truth.

Kirihara’s grip tightened on the gun as Misaki’s voice drifted through his mind. _He’s a good man, Dad. I hope you can trust me_. He took another breath.

“Police! Freeze!”

The man froze; then his hand darted under his jacket as he dropped the doll’s arm.

Kirihara was about to pull the trigger when a dark shape lunged from behind the van. A sharp hand strike to the arm released a revolver with a clatter while a kick to the back of the knee dropped the suspect to the ground. Another knee jab knocked his face into the ground while Li pinned his hands behind his back.

Kirihara aimed his pistol at the suspect’s head. Li pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket - and promptly fumbled them with a clatter.

“Damn,” he muttered. “I, uh, haven’t had much practice with this part.”

Kirihara merely raised an eyebrow.

Finally managing to cuff the suspect, who he left face down in the street with an order not to move, Li stood and dusted off his jeans. Kirihara lowered the weapon, still slightly shocked that the contractor had followed through with the plan. As he made to hand the weapon back, Li said, “Wait.”

Without warning, the blue glow of synchrotron radiation surrounded him. Kirihara let out a strangled gasp and raised his gun - Li, however, reached out to the side of the van next to him and sent a jolt of electricity into it.

“What was that for?” Kirihara demanded.

In answer, Li walked around to the back and opened the cargo door. A man was sprawled on the floor, unconscious but, Kirihara was relieved to see, still breathing. A handgun was still gripped in his fingers.

“I thought there might be another one.”

“What was that?” the suspect called out from the other side of the van. “Yoneda?”

Li ignored the man; instead, he returned to where the doll was still standing in the center of the alley, exactly where it had been left.

It was a young boy, Kirihara saw; maybe twelve or thirteen, scrawny and dressed in what was barely passable as clothing. Li’s guess that it had been left on its own since the Kishita raid looked to be correct. He knew it was just a doll, but still; no living thing should be treated with such neglect.

Li walked up to the doll and knelt in front of it, so that they were eye to eye. The cold resolve of a contractor was gone from his expression, replaced with a surprising softness.

“Hey,” he said. “My name is Li. I don’t know if Dolores was able to talk to you; but I’m going to take you to some people who can help. No one’s going to hurt you, okay?”

He waited as if expecting an answer; then, to Kirihara’s utmost surprise, the doll gave the tiniest nod of its head.

Nodding back, Li led it over to the restaurant wall and directed it to sit on an upturned crate. The doll did so, giving no other sign that it was at all aware of the world around it. Maybe he’d just imagined that nod.

Kirihara gave himself a mental shake. “Absolutely nothing about what you just did was according to protocol. You’re not taking that doll anywhere without calling dispatch first, and getting a patrol from CI down here.”

“Right,” Li said, looking suddenly sheepish. “And Section Four needs to process the doll.” He felt around in his pockets. “Damn, did I - no, here it is.”

He pulled out a cell phone. Before he could dial, however, Kirihara held up a hand.

“Don’t mention that I was here. It would only complicate things; and I don’t want it to look like I approve of your complete disregard for the rules. That’s Misaki’s job to sort out.”

The contractor grimaced. “Yeah, she’s not going to be happy with me.”

“Then why do it?”

Li blinked. “What?”

“You heard me - why do it? What could you possibly gain for yourself out of this?”

Li looked down at the phone in his hands, then at the doll, before returning his gaze to Kirihara. “Misaki is taking a huge chance on me; in more ways than one. I want her to be right. I want to prove to her that I’m worth it. But even without that…I couldn’t leave the doll on its own.”

“Don’t you get tired of acting all the time?”

“Yes; that’s why I stopped.” He hesitated. “Look, it would mean a lot to Misaki if you came and had dinner with us. Just once. You don’t have to stop hating me for that.”

Kirihara returned his gaze steadily. “I’ll think about it,” he said at last.

Setting Li’s weapon on the hood of the van, he turned and left the alley.


End file.
